Grayson College intern program recognized as Bellwether Award finalist

Grayson College garnered national attention for its “Building Pathways to Careers Through Partnership: Industry Intern Program” (I2). As one of 10 finalists competing in the Planning, Governance and Finance (PGF) category for the 21st Annual Bellwether Awards presented by the Community College Futures Assembly (CCFA), they presented the I2 program to hundreds of community college representatives during the annual policy summit Jan. 27.

Grayson College, Denison, Texas

     CCFA convenes annually as an independent national policy forum for key opinion leaders to serve as a think tank in identifying critical issues facing the future of community colleges and to recognize Bellwether finalists as trend-setting institutions. Bellwether Awards honor outstanding and innovative programs and practices that are successfully leading community colleges into the future. Grayson was the only Texas institution named a finalist in PGF category, which recognizes programs or activities that have been designed and successfully implemented to improve efficiency and effectiveness in the community college.

     While the college didn’t win the top award, GC President Jeremy McMillen was proud of the nomination. “It was an honor to be nominated. We feel like winners, even though we weren’t selected as the one in our category. Every program there was phenomenal; it was really amazing,” McMillen said.

     Finalists were selected from more 300 applications among nearly 1,000 nationwide nominations to make presentations at the summit, which showcases the competitively selected, leading-edge programs in community colleges that are worthy of replicating. Peer-reviewed committees judged entries in GC’s category and in two other categories as well, including: Instructional Programming and Services, and Workforce Development. Ten finalists per category were selected to present and showcase their programs.

     “With more than 1,200 national community colleges, the Bellwether Award is one of the highest honors an institution can receive,” said Dale F. Campbell, professor and director of the Community College Futures Assembly and Institute of Higher Education. “The award is similar to being selected by your peers for the Oscar or Emmy awards.”

      McMillen,  GC trustee Debbie Barnes-Plyler, and Vice President of Champion Cooler Brian Aspell, discussed Grayson’s I2 program during the policy summit. The presentation highlighted the college’s partnership with local school districts, Denison Development Alliance, Workforce Solutions Texoma, and several industries including Champion Cooler (Texas 2013 Employer of the Year). The partnership created a pathway for high school students to move into an industrial maintenance technology career via the intern program. The program’s successful outcome is that industries have more qualified candidates when searching for employees with this skillset and economic developers have a powerful example of how community partners collaborate to provide a trained workforce for local industry.

     “The pathway created through the program has helped the community retain and attract manufacturing industries,” McMillen said. “Beyond this, the partnerships created through this program’s development are allowing us to move faster as a community to tackle other issues in community and economic development.”